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The Far Northwest: Sutherland, Assynt and Coigach

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Landscapes and Landforms of Scotland

Part of the book series: World Geomorphological Landscapes ((WGLC))

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Abstract

The far northwest of mainland Scotland is renowned for its scenery, structural complexity and geodiversity, and is designated as a UNESCO Global Geopark. The region is bisected by the Moine Thrust Zone (MTZ) , west of which a foreland of undeformed Archaean gneiss supports inselbergs of Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic rocks, and east of which are thrust-stacked, deformed metasedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Moine Supergroup. The MTZ forms a north–south belt within which rocks were extensively thrust and folded during the Caledonian Orogeny. Successive Pleistocene glaciations have resulted in an array of erosional landforms: troughs, rock basins, cirques, glacially steepened inselbergs, extensive areas of knock-and-lochan terrain and clusters of glacial megagrooves. During the last and earlier ice-sheet glaciations, the region sourced northwestward-flowing ice feeding the Minch Ice Stream, which extended far across the adjacent shelf, but by ~15 ka the last ice sheet had retreated to its mountain heartland. The Loch Lomond Stade (~12.9 to 11.7 ka) witnessed reoccupation of the main mountain axis by a substantial (~350 km2) icefield, and cirque glaciers formed on peripheral mountains; the extent of the former is mainly delimited by multiple recessional moraines, the latter by end-moraine belts. Lateglacial and Holocene landforms include outwash or delta terraces at fjord heads, sea stacks, beaches backed by sand dunes, rock-slope failures, relict talus accumulations, and active periglacial and aeolian features on high ground. Karst terrain developed on dolostones comprises sinkholes, resurgences and extensive cave networks formed by water-table lowering due to Middle and Late Pleistocene valley deepening.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK

    Tom Bradwell

  2. School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9AL, Scotland, UK

    Colin K. Ballantyne

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  1. Tom Bradwell
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  2. Colin K. Ballantyne
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Correspondence to Tom Bradwell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Colin K. Ballantyne

  2. School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    John E. Gordon

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Bradwell, T., Ballantyne, C.K. (2021). The Far Northwest: Sutherland, Assynt and Coigach. In: Ballantyne, C.K., Gordon, J.E. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Scotland. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71246-4_12

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